Don't know how i missed this thread for so long, but i did. As Macdonj observed above, i have a tendency to hang onto gear. That is, if i like it and think it retains an endearing quality over time. On the other hand, there is some gear that i've had come in my door and leave within the time frame of a week or two. I know that some of you can relate as you've stated so above : )
Having said that, i'll never get rid of my Ohm F's. There is something about an omni-directional point source ( one driver per channel that radiates 360* horizontally ) that covers the entire frequency range that is incomparable to what one gets out of any other type of speaker system. It is so very different that one must experience it for themselves to know what i am refering to. On a good recording, the soundstage is literally "dense as thick fog". You can literally stand in it and walk around with the feeling of complete immersion. The first words that came out of my brothers' mouth were "f**king AWESOME" after experiencing this type of "music reproduction". It was "awesome" because it was no longer just "music reproduction" so much as it was experiencing the "dimensionality" and "atmosphere" of the recording. It was / is experiences like this that make one re-think what a system should sound like and be capable of. After you experience something like this, you'll never look at / listen to a "box" speaker in the same fashion.
Bare in mind that it took me somewhere around a year to really get the F's working decently. Finding suitable amplifiers was a REAL task. We are talking about speakers that average about three ohms across most of their operating range. As if bass does not require enough current to do correctly, these speakers drop to below 2 ohms at low frequencies. Tack on the fact that they are very low in sensitivity, something like 82 - 83 dB's, and you've got one helluva load to try and drive. As such, i don't think that there were really ANY amps made that could do these speakers justice when they were in production. Sure, there were plenty of BIG wattage SS amps back then, but the quality just wasn't there as a general rule. As such, many people wrote off these speakers due to the lack of suitable electronics to drive them. Between the very seamless and revealing nature of the speaker ( no crossovers, multiple drivers or baffle to deal with ), the lack of suitable amplifiers and the fact that there were several engineering flaws designed in from the factory that one would have to overcome BEFORE these speakers would really sing, they faded into the past quite a while ago.
Once i was able to find suitable amplification and tweak the speakers quite a bit, i liked them so much that i drove to Boston ( from Chicago ) to pick up another set to have as spares. As most of you know, the "real" Walsh drivers are only getting older and harder to find due to deteriorating with age. As such, finding a pair that is in good shape and / or been properly repaired and maintained is pretty tough. I've seen way too many Walsh drivers that were damaged beyond repair and / or repaired but not working properly.
With that in mind, looking for and finding a pair of F's worth tinkering with can be a task in itself, let alone putting in the work to really make them sing. If you think that you are going to drop these ( or ANY speaker worth keeping ) into a room, hook them up to an amp and be done with it, think again. I don't know of any "simple" speaker that can do what these or other "highly involved" speaker systems give you when properly set-up. You'll never get the results or the enjoyment that ANY speaker is capable of without putting in a great amount of effort on your part. Sean
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